[agwa]

What would your pitch to donors be? Let's Encrypt was transformative by combining free and automated. Would your registrar be doing anything besides subsidizing domains for people who are willing/able to pay $9.15 (.com price without markup) but not $10.37 (Porkbun .com price)?

Also, registrants will not understand that you are just an intermediary who is making no profit. Since they paid you, they will hold you responsible for any problems they have, and won't shy away from disputing credit card transactions if you don't provide the level of support they expect. That's a lot harder to deal with than a free service, which can get away with providing no support.